The Missing Blade
by Ruby Daughter of Ares
Summary: When Katoptris goes missing, Percy decides to become a detective. But not just any detective, Sherlock Holmes. And Nico di Angelo as his own John Watson. Pernico and Pipabeth. Slash, obviously.
1. Getting a Case

_All rights reserved to Rick Riordan who created these awesome characters and story and such. I can only dream of being like him._

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Piper grumbled as she awoke, like every morning. But, unlike every morning, her head was comfortably resting on her pillow. She kept her dagger, Katoptris, under her pillow. Annabeth had yelled at her to, so she could be prepared in any situation. What use were the magic boundaries if you still had to be ready for attack while taking a nap?

She rolled over, her head fitting comfortably on the super cushy pillow. Pegasus down. She would have to buy some before she went home.

They had just gotten back from the quest of the century. That's what they were going to call it until the next prophecy came along. It was only a week ago they had been sent back to Camp Half-Blood covered in mud and sweat. And a lot of blood. Leo had just gotten out of the infirmary, with Frank hovering over him whenever he was allowed. Hazel had come and talked to Piper about it, and they both agreed that it would be best if the two broke up. She delivered the news swiftly, and left poor Frank heart broken.

Piper and Jason's relationship had broken down too. Jason was too busy dealing with Romans, who didn't take Pipes seriously at all. They viewed her as his arm candy, and he didn't even object to it. So she dumped his sorry ass, hard. With tons of yelling and screaming. And a big crowd. She definitely did Aphrodite proud. Another part of the problem was Annabeth. That girl kept coming to Piper in dreams, not nightmares. Very, very good dreams.

So when she ordered Piper to keep a dagger under her pillow, she was not one to argue. The blonde was very scary, but she could also be sweet. When Piper broke up with Jason, she had second guessed herself soon after, but Annie was right there telling her what a horrible boyfriend Jason was. She even talked about some of the things Percy did wrong, which made her start rambling about how he was always with Nico and never her, which led to her being in tears. Now, Annabeth Chase wasn't a girl to cry, you could see that just looking into her fierce grey eyes, so when she cried something was most definitely wrong. Piper set out to go see Percy after that, and found him talking to Nico, the younger boy laughing at one of Percy's jokes. It surprised Piper, seeing him laugh so easily. After being with him on the Argo II, she would have sworn he couldn't show compassion for anyone but Hazel. But watching the two chat so easily was heartwarming, until she heard part of their conversation.

"Percy, it can't be that hard. She's been drifting away from you, just tell her the truth. It's not like she'll completely abandon you, you were best friends for how long before you started dating?" Nico said, grabbing Percy's hand reassuringly. It would have been normal for anyone else, but it was startling coming from di Angelo.

Percy mumbled a response incoherently, making Nico smile a little. "Exactly, so just go and tell her. It can't be that hard," he grabbed Percy's collar, pulling him into a chaste kiss. Piper couldn't help it, she gasped, alerting the couple about her presence.

"Piper?" Percy asked, and Piper nodded slowly. Percy was gay? Since when? She could have guessed Nico, but Percy? This made absolutely no sense.

"You can't tell Annabeth about this, please." He begged, stepping towards her. "I'm going to tell her, I just don't know how."

"You tell her by the end of the day, or I do. Got it, Jackson?" She demanded, startling herself and the two boys. He charmspeak must have kicked in, because they both nodded obediently. She marched away, aware of two sets of eyes following her. She was still beyond confused, but that didn't matter. Annabeth deserved to know. She didn't deserve to be cheated on. She didn't deserve a boyfriend like that. Really, she should have a girlfriend instead. Wait, that's not right. Annabeth was straight, Piper was straight. Yeah. Right.

Later on that day, during dinner, Percy pulled Annabeth aside and they talked it out. Percy actually admitted to having feelings for Nico, but Annabeth didn't even flinch. Instead she smiled. She pulled him into a big hug after, and went back to her table with a small trace of a smile on her face. Being an Aphrodite, Piper could read people very well, and she looked nothing less than delighted. That wasn't usually how people dealt with break ups, but Annabeth was a special girl.

Now back to the present time. It took a while for realization to set in, being so early in the morning. Okay, so maybe ten wasn't early, but when you stayed up all night watching Pretty Little Liars and went to bed at five, it was early. She reached under her pillow and felt, nothing. Katoptris was gone. She looked on the floor next to her bed, but it wasn't there. She looked under her bed, not surprised it wasn't there either. Crap. She looked around, some of her sibling were messing with their hair or nails, picking out the right outfits. She shouted and asked if anyone had seen it, and was met with a chorus of no's. Perfect.

She continued to look, and then decided that she must have lost it yesterday. She didn't even remember putting it under her pillow. She put on a baggy t-shirt and jean shorts and set out to find it. She wasn't going to be the one girl who loses Helen of Troy's dagger. Everyone here already didn't like her because she was an Aphrodite, it would be best not to make it any worse. She saw Percy out near the Big House, sitting in a rocking chair, with blank but pained expression she saw Annabeth wear all too often. An aftereffect of Tartarus.

"Perce! Come over here!" She shouted, breaking his trance. He stood up quickly, almost tripping over his own feet running over to him.

"Sup, Pipes. What do ya need?" He asked with his usual goofy smile.

She frowned lightly. "I dropped my dagger somewhere, and I need help looking for it. Do you think you can spare me some time?" He almost started jumping up and down in excitement.

"So, is this like some mystery? Do I have to figure out who took it and arrest the criminal?" Percy asked, apparently not getting what Piper was asking.

She shook her head. "No, I just dropped it somewhere. I was wondering if you could help me look around. It can't be that far," she said, but he was ignoring her, lost in thought.

"So, if I'm Sherlock Holmes, then I need a scarf, and a Watson! I'll be right back!" He shouted over his shoulder, running towards the darkly colored cabin.

Piper sighed. Percy was one of a kind. Only he could turn looking for a lost weapon into a mystery. She went back towards her lacy cabin, and took a nap. Percy knew what it looked like, and she wouldn't be much help if she was more than half asleep. Maybe three quarters asleep.

"Neeks! C'mon, wake up! We've got a quest!" Okay, maybe Percy lied a little bit, but he needed Nico awake immediately.

A minute later, the door opened slowly, revealing a Nico who looked even scarier than normal. He had a baggy long sleeved shirt on, with plaid pajama bottoms. Percy had to control himself not to hurl himself at him, they had a mission. No, a case.

"Hello, Watson." Percy said in his best British accent, which really sucked. Nico might have smiled under normal circumstances, but he was too tired for this. He had been up all night dealing with Underworld affairs, now Percy decided to become Sherlock Holmes.

"Perce, I'm really tired. I can't deal with this right now," he mumbled, and was interrupted with a high pitch yawn. Everything about him was absolutely adorable.

Percy shook his head quickly, he had to have Nico. "You have to come right now, it's important." He pulled the son of Hades behind him, the boy protesting. He was still in his pajamas after all.

When they got to the place Percy had left Piper, she was gone. Percy looked around but there was no sight of her. He shrugged and continued to pull Nico behind him, scouring the ground as he went.

"Okay, it's obvious you're looking for something, so tell me what it is." Nico demanded, digging his heels into the ground. It wasn't nearly as effective, not having shoes on. Percy sighed and explained that Piper had lost her dagger.

"Shouldn't she be looking for it if she lost it? It's not our responsibility to find things that other campers lose," Nico pointed out, but Percy looked so determined he couldn't bring himself to say that he wouldn't help. "Let me go back to my cabin and change, okay?"

Percy smiled, and dragged Nico back to his cabin, ignoring the fact that Nico was yelling at him not to come inside.

Fifteen minutes and a few heated kisses later, Nico di Angelo was fully dressed. The duo started off towards the training area. After a good ten minutes with no luck, they moved on to the next area. After three hours of searching, they sat down on a bench near the fire pit. There was no fire of course, but it was still a nice place to sit.

"Nothing, nada, zilch, zero," Nico crossed his arms and leaned into Percy, who put an arm around him casually.

"Well, we might as well start asking around. Someone must have seen it, I mean, it's pretty noticeable. Very shiny," Percy reasoned, and felt Nico nod against his shoulder. "But first, lunchtime."

The duo set off towards the pavilion together. Not holding hands or doing anything that would signify them as a couple. As old as the Greek gods were, some campers didn't really understand such modern concepts as homosexual relationships. Not that it was really modern at all. There were plenty of Greek homosexuals, but some people still would hate them. He couldn't do that to the already socially challenged Nico.

After much begging from almost all of the campers, it was decided that you didn't have to sit at a table with your siblings. The seven and Nico usually sat together at one of the far tables, away from everyone else. They had mixed reactions when they came back. Some people were overjoyed, but some wanted them to stay away. It was only natural. The strongest people are feared and envied.

Annabeth was the only one there, reading a book. She didn't even acknowledge them as they sat. Being the bestest friend in the entire world, she accepted Percy's relationship with open arms. But she did fail to admit that she too had feeling for someone while they were still dating. Percy didn't need to know that anyway, she had no chance with her. Her. That was part of the problem.

Everyone would accept Percy. The savior of Olympus and the world could date whoever he wanted. But his ex-girlfriend? There was a reason he left her, and she had already heard mutterings behind her back about it. She didn't take any of it seriously, but after a while it would get to her. It was unavoidable. You could try and ignore it, but even the strongest walls can't survive so many strong blows. Something one of her favorite characters had said once came to mind. "It's not like a stab wound you can protect me from. It's a million little paper cuts every day." Funny how Alec was going through the very thing she feared most.

"Earth to Annie," Percy called, and grabbed the book out of her hands. He knew it was stupid, but he didn't lose the page. That was certain death right there. She glared at him in the most menacing way, but her heart wasn't into it. He noticed but decided not dwell on it. "Have you seen Pipe's dagger? She lost it and hired me to find it."

"Hired you?" She asked incredulously. Piper wouldn't hire someone to do something for her. Percy probably volunteered and dragged Nico into it. She knew him all too well.

Percy rolled his eyes. "Well, not exactly. But have you seen it at all? Heard anything?" She shook her head quickly and snatched her book out of his hands. Placing on the bench next to her, out of reach, Jason walked up behind her, and sat down next to Nico.

He always looked so proud when he saw Percy and Nico together, like he had something to do with it. Come to think of it, on board the Argo II, he had always been on Nico's side with anything, pushing the two together. He must have figured it out, she doubted Nico would have told anyone in anything less than a life or death situation.

A short time later, Piper lazily dragged herself to the table, sitting down next to Annabeth. She looked like she had just awoken from a thousand year slumber. Annabeth thought about calling her Sleeping Beauty but she would probably hit her. A light smile graced her lips at the thought. Hazel showed up a little later, followed closely by Leo and Frank. Hazel sat on the other side of Piper, and Leo on the other side of her. Leo had absolutely no idea he had helped cause Frank's break-up, and kept being friendly with both of them. It wasn't like it was even possible for Hazel to dislike Leo. The fact that he looked exactly like Sammy, and he was so happy all the time didn't help at all.

Frank sat right across from the short boy, next to Jason, who started chatting about their training session. The sessions that Nico had been constantly avoiding. He had decided to only train with Percy, because he got much more done, and it was definitely more enjoyable. Jason told him that he would be too distracted, making him go red. Percy asked around if anyone had seen the weapon, followed by a chorus of no's. Not surprising.

Nico bit into a turkey sandwich, not noticing that Percy was already done with his lunch. He had eaten everything in one bite, and was wiping his mouth. After eating with Annabeth so long, he had learned manners. He jumped up to throw some of his food into the ceremonial burning pit. He came back to the table, gave Nico a kiss on the check and ran away, towards the lake. Leo's jaw dropped. No one had told him, or Hazel and Frank, that the two were dating. It made a lot of sense, but it was still surprising that Percy was so open. Nico buried his face in his arms, his face red as a tomato. Jason rubbed soothing circles on his back, with a big grin. Annabeth chuckled lightly, watching Percy disappear over the hill. That boy was so much trouble. But for Nico, the trouble was much more than worth it.

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**Hello, thanks for reading my story! I can just imagine Percy taking things too far about simple things, and thus this fic came to be. If you see any mistakes or errors please tell me, I hate looking stupid. I mean, who likes it? But anyway, I hope you enjoy it. Thanks for reading!**


	2. Following the Clues

Nico was less than thrilled to see Percy sitting by the lake, his feet dangling like he had no care in the world. Nico walked up behind him silently. One of the only bonuses of being a child of Hades was that you could be completely silent if you wanted too. Probably the only one. Unless you were Hazel and could summon gems. Okay, maybe the gems were cursed for a while, but it was still cooler than raising the dead. I mean, it's awesome, but they don't make the best companions all the time.

When he was right behind Percy, he lashed out and rammed against him full force, sending the older boy into the water. Percy was too surprised to react immediately and thrashed around in the water by instinct, then heard a cackling Nico on the shore. He controlled the water into dumping him on the shore with ease. Perfectly dry, he glared at Nico, who continued to laugh. He wanted to be angry, but seeing the son of Hades laugh was so rare, he just marveled at his… boyfriend? Lover? Partner? They really hadn't decided what they were, and that really didn't matter to Perce, as long as he got to be with the boy.

"I guess you didn't find anything," Nico said, after catching his breathe. He was quite proud of himself, Percy was hard to mess with. Percy shook his head and sighed deeply, obviously thinking that this search was supposed to be much easier. "Why don't we go and ask around, someone bound to have seen something."

Percy nodded and stood up, offering a hand to Nico, who ignored him. It was always funny to see Nico with his small independent tendencies. Never asking for help with anything simple, always going off by himself and preferring the company of no one over someone he barely knows. It was intriguing. But Percy also knew that Nico would always ask for help if he really needed it. But, only for his help. As close as he was with Jason, Percy couldn't imagine Nico doing that. It wasn't like he was proud, Nico thought very low of himself actually, something Percy utterly despised. He had told him so many times how amazing he was, but Nico brushed it all off. It was frustrating as hell.

They both started off in the same direction, but gradually Nico turned to the right, towards a group of Aphrodite girls. Percy felt bad for him, those girls were killers, and headed towards the pack of Demeter children, along with a few satyrs and nymphs. He saw Juniper mixed in with the lot, and shot her a smile. The smile was quickly returned as she excused herself from a conversation.

"Hey, Percy! What's up?" Juniper said as she approached, her greenish colored skin sparking in the sunlight. Percy wondered if she actually ate, or just used photosynthesis. He quickly dismissed the idea, stupid ADHD.

Percy shrugged. "Nothing much. But hey, have you seen a dagger anywhere? About twenty inches, kinda shiny, used by Helen of Troy. Kinda important that I find it for a friend," he explained quickly, not wanting to waste any time.

Juniper thought for a moment, then snapped her fingers. "Yeah! This Apollo boy was showing it off, he said he found it by the lake this morning. I think his name was, uh, Jared something. He's a tall blonde, but that doesn't really help much, he's an Apollo after all. But, his hair is unevenly cut, like he did it with scissors. That's all I got, hope it helps. I gotta go, bye Perce." She waved and ran back to the forest.

Percy smiled as he watched the receding figure. She was much more than helpful, she was downright key to solving this case. Although he was starting to doubt that it was a case after all, being that he found it by the lake where Piper dropped it. What a bummer, his detective skills weren't going to be put to use. Damn.

Nico was busy being ambushed by teenage girls. They started out by talking about what he should do with his hair, which he thought looked fine, but apparently was horrendous. There goes the little self-confidence he had. Then they made him take off his jacket, which made more sense, since it was a little hot out, but he liked his jacket on at all times. They gave him a once over, then ruffled his hair up, making it even worse. Then a girl pulled out a bag of makeup, and Nico tried to flee, only to be held down by two surprisingly strong girls. They pulled out some cream and put it right under his eyes. He would never have admitted it at the time, or to anyone, but it actually felt good being taken care of.

Finally, they released him, and held out a mirror. He actually looked decent. His normal bags under his eyes were gone, or hidden. Whatever. His hair was tussled to the point of being cool looking. He begged for his jacket back, but they said it would be at his cabin by the end of the day. Some people would argue that the children of the Big Three were the scariest, but it was most definitely the Aphrodite kids.

He sighed as he headed back to the lake. He hadn't even managed to ask them if they had seen the dagger. Oh well, chances are they hadn't anyway.

Percy sprinted over to the pond, a bright smile on his face. He turned to Nico, and the smile was replaced with a look of utter shock.

"What happened to you? You look, different. Not bad, but just different," Percy didn't want to offend him, but needed to know what had happened.

"Aphrodite girls attacked me, and stole my jacket," he explained bored. Percy shook his head as to forget his train of thought, and then started again.

"Apparently there was an Apollo boy that had been seen with it, I got a name and description. The game is on, Watson!" Percy shouted, grabbing Nico's hand and pulling him towards the basketball courts.

Running up to the large group of blonde boys, Percy dropped Nico's hand. Instantly thankful, Nico stepped away from him, going to go sit on a bench. Percy moved forward, and everyone parted in front of him. Being a hero had some bonuses.

"Which one of you is Jared?" He asked, spinning around, getting a good look at everyone's faces. Cautiously a boy that looked about fourteen stepped forward. His hair did look like it got cut with scissors, and didn't really suit his serious expression.

"I'm Jared, w-what do you want?" He obviously thought he was in trouble, being called on by the one and only Percy Jackson. Jared looked over at Nico, who was watching the girls' game on the other court.

Percy gave a reassuring smile, and put a hand on Jared's shoulder. "You all can go back to your game," he gestured and everyone immediately turned around and whispered amongst themselves. "Now, Jared," Percy said quietly, "I heard a rumor that you were seen with a dagger. And that dagger happens to belong to one of my close friends, and I need it back."

"Oh," Jared gave a nervous laugh, "My brother dared me to go around showing it off. I gave it to Mr. D, because it looked really important. I don't know what he did with it, sorry."

Percy raised his hand off of the boy, and let out a sigh. He had to deal with Dionysus now? That would be fun. So much fun. He muttered a thanks to the Apollo boy and went to sit next to Nico. Said boy was staring intently at the girls playing basketball.

"Interesting game?" Percy asked, startling Nico. Smiling apologetically, Percy placed his hand on top of Nico's making the boy go red in the face. He hated public display of affection, which was exactly why Percy did it.

Nico nodded. "They're really good. Of course, they could spend this time training." Percy sighed deeply, rolling his head back. It wasn't really comfortable, but holding his head up was too much effort.

"We just got done with a war, everyone should have some time to relax and have some fun. That includes you too," Percy jabbed him in the stomach. Nico just rolled his eyes.

"Okay, maybe not training for war, but there are still monsters that got away from us. We should focus on taking them down before they start targeting young half-bloods," Nico explained.

"You're starting to sound like Clarisse. 'We might as well just go kill everything, it's more fun anyway'" Percy made his voice go a little higher, not that Clarisse had a high voice. Saying so would be suicide. "Anyway, I know who has it," Percy said, lifting his chin with a proud smirk. Nico simply gestured for him to go on. Percy sighed, no congratulations. How rude. "The Apollo gave it to Mr. D, let's get this over with."

Nico rolled his eyes. He didn't understand Percy's hatred of Dionysus. He was a bad camp instructor, but he really did care deep down about the kids. Nico could see that. Maybe Percy couldn't, or maybe he did. Sometimes you could read him like a book, and then the next page was in a different language.

Percy took his time walking to the Big House, stopping to tie his shoe a few times, and to talk to some campers that were about to go and climb the rock wall. Really it should be called Death Mountain. That was what Nico called it. Much more accurate description.

When they finally got there, Dionysus had his head shoved in a magazine, and didn't notice when the two boys walked up. After a few times clearing his throat, Percy finally leaned forward and snatched the magazine out of the god's hands.

"Oh, I didn't see you there, Peter. And Nolan. Nice to see the two of you," his smile screamed 'what the hell do you want/get the hell away from me'. Percy pretended not to notice.

"I know that's a lie, but there's a lost dagger," Percy said bored, and cut off the large man (don't let him catch you call him that, you're done for) before he could say anything, "I know you really don't care, but the dagger is important. And I know you came into contact with it, so don't say you didn't. I've got witnesses. You know, Katoptris, yeah, it's that one."

Mr. D chuckled lightly. "If I didn't know better, Jackson, I would say you hated me." The son of Poseidon made a choking noise, probably trying not to laugh. Nico stared down at his feet, not really wanting to be part of the conversation. "But, I indeed had it. I gave it to a Satyr to put in the weapons shed. Whether it made it there or not, I have no idea. Nor do I care. So go away, I have important things to do," seeing Percy's disapproving glare, he added, "shoo."

Walking away from the house, Nico was silent. Percy was a bit pissed, but that usually happened when you dealt with gods. They were never really helpful. At all.

So the couple set off towards the weapons shack. It was a pretty beat up building nowadays. Leo set it on fire already, and had only been out of the infirmary for two days. Then Jason threw a sword at it, splitting one of the boards in half. It was apparently an accident. And you can't count the number of pranks the Stoll's had pulled in there.

Nico grabbed the copper door handle and pushed, but it barely moved. Then he pushed again, and nothing. Percy tried not to laugh as Nico frowned at the door disapprovingly. It finally opened when the threw his shoulder against it. As the two stepped in, Nico with a hand rubbing his bruised shoulder, both of their jaws dropped.

It was empty. Completely empty. Not a single weapon left on the wall or in the bins. Percy sighed and started to go through everything. Nico walked farther in and looked at the walls.

"Look at this, it's actually pretty cool." He motioned Percy over to see a diagram. It showed the different parts of an electric spear. He wondered if Leo had seen this, if he had he probably wouldn't have almost burned this place down.

Percy nodded, not really paying all that much attention to the schematic. Where was everything? Even the shields and helmets were gone. He marched out, followed by Nico who was altogether done with the entire search. He just wanted to sleep. Preferable curled up with Percy.

They ended up back at the Big House, but instead of speaking to the useless god, Chiron was standing and looking over a document. Percy let out a sigh of relief, this was going to make everything easier.

"Oh, hello Percy. Do you need something?" Chiron read Percy's slightly worn face with a small smile. He had started to do that when he saw any of the seven, smiling for no reason. Probably because he never expected to see any of them ever again.

"What happened to all of the weapons? The shed is picked clean," Nico asked impatiently. The son of Poseidon nodded eagerly.

The centaur chuckled lightly, and smiled at the two, his old eyes sparkling. "You must be living under a rock, we have capture the flag tonight. Of course, you don't have to participate, actually I would prefer if you didn't. I'm not letting Valdez either, he should still be recovering."

The two just stood there in shock. Neither knew anything about that. Had everyone purposefully not told them so they wouldn't get hurt. Fat chance. It was almost a sin to miss a capture the flag game, unless you were injured. They were the best. Even better than War Games at Camp Jupiter. Nico nodded and said goodbye to Chiron and pulled Percy behind him back to the Hades cabin.

"Why are we here?" Percy asked once they were inside. He had been silent the entire way there, not wanting to stop Nico. The younger boy dropped his hand and spun around. They just stared into each other's eyes for a second, Percy not sure what was going on, and Nico not wanting the moment to end.

With a long sigh, Nico turned back around and sat on his bed. "We've got capture the flag tonight, so I'm going to take a nap so I can be ready. I thought you might want to too, but if you don't, go ahead and leave."

"You're making it sound like I'm going to break up with you or something," Percy laughed, but Nico went beet red. Breaking up meant you were dating first. He dove into his pillow and mumbled something intelligent. Percy shook his head lovingly. "I don't want you in the game, but I don't think I have a choice. And a nap sounds rather inviting."

He sat down on the bed, with the "sleeping" boy facing the other way. Slowly he laid down and wrapped his hands around the younger boy's waist. Nico pressed back absentmindedly, forgetting he was feigning sleep. But it didn't matter, Percy was out like a light in a matter of seconds. Neither could sleep alone anymore, and they always came to each other.

And it chased all of the nightmares. But they didn't have dreams either, because there were no dreams that could compare to the life they were living.

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**Sorry for the long wait, I kinda got wrapped up in school. But I'll update faster now, I promise! Reviews are greatly appreciated. Thanks for reading!**


	3. The Games Begin and End

Maybe sleeping cuddled together was a bad idea, because they both slept very soundly. And very long. Annabeth had come looking for them after they missed the roll call. She knew that if anyone else went looking for them, they would find something that the couple really didn't want anyone to know.

So when she opened the door to the gloomy Hades cabin, she wasn't all that surprised to see Percy and Nico wrapped up in each other, and very asleep. It was absolutely adorable. Nico had a little smile on his face that was probably the cutest thing since she saw Percy get tackled by Mrs. O'Leary when they got back from their quest. It was way cuter. Percy had a smug smirk, and looked completely at peace. She almost closed the door and said they went into the city, but she knew that they would want to come.

It took five minutes to wake Nico up, and about ten seconds to get Percy. Annabeth went for Nico first because he would probably be the scariest, and might as well get it out of the way first. After a lot of gentle shaking and whispered words, he stirred and looked straight into her grey eyes.

She had prepared herself for death, not a puppy. He sat up slowly, shrugging Percy off of him. Then let out a long, almost cartoonish yawn. But it was actually quite high pitched, and didn't fit his personality at all. He rubbed his eyes and struggled to free himself of the constricting blanket.

She put her hand over her mouth not to laugh, but Nico ignored her. Instead, he shook Percy a little and his eyes opened immediately. He sat up so fast it was like he had awoken from a nightmare, which was possible. But the smile on his face disproved Annabeth's theory.

The green eyed boy looked quizzically at his ex for a moment, and didn't stop until she stopped talking.

"You're late for capture the flag," she said quickly, and smiled lightly at the two. Nico went red in the face instantly, but Percy's face lit up. "Hurry down there, I don't know if we can get the both of you on the same team if you don't."

That was all the motivation the two needed to get dressed in a flash. Within five minutes, they were out the door and running to the forest. Chiron had an almost pained smile when they came into sight. He had wanted them to not play, but it was obvious that wasn't an option. Leo was sitting on the bench with Frank at his side. Hazel was standing by them chatting "happily". She was trying really hard to be joyful, but it wasn't working out too well.

Piper, Jason, Hazel, and Annabeth all had on their armor and holding weapons. Piper had grabbed a dagger a lot like Annabeth's, and was throwing it back and forth, trying to get a feel for it. Annabeth was telling her how the dagger was different from her own, all while constantly reminding her that she was responsible for losing it and that she was lucky they could get her another. When the couple arrived, the blonde stopped berating her friend and jogged towards them.

"You're too late. There's an even number on both sides, miraculously. So you two will have to be split up," she frowned a little, obviously not wanting it to happen. Percy frowned a little but Nico shrugged his shoulders.

"More competition I suppose," he said. Percy continued to frown, Annabeth gave an apologetic smile. "Besides," Nico continued, "it's our fault for not getting early. I'm gonna bet that you and Percy are going to be on the same team, so I'll go with Hazel. See you on the field, Perce."

He gave one of his rare smiles and ran over to his half-sister. Percy's small frown turned into a slight smile. Annabeth grabbed his hand out of habit and dragged him over to the giant pile of armor. He took Riptide out of his pocket and uncapped it. She rolled her eyes and went back to the rest of her team.

Twenty minutes later, after the rules speech about not murdering each other they took their places. Percy was on offense with Annabeth telling him the plan, that was most likely going to be completely ignored. She knew this, but it soothed her headache a bit to think he was at least acknowledging that she did come up with a plan.

Nico was guarding the flag. Why they chose him was a mystery that was never to be solved, for that required unnecessary socialization with his teammates, which Nico hated intensely. Really, he hated unnecessary socialization with anyone besides family. Even family was sometimes in that, depending on how things were going at the time. But Percy was good to talk to, and Hazel. He could be considered family. That thought made him smile a little, mildly concerning Hazel. She had her own problems to deal with, and turned her back to her brother. She knew they had been chosen because everyone was scared of the two Hades kids, and wouldn't really want to get past them to get the flag.

When the signal went off, everyone set off. Some following a plan set by their leader (the blue team led by Annabeth) and some going and doing whatever they wanted trying to be the first to get the flag (Percy and almost the entire red team). Within two minutes, there were already shouts and groans coming from the forest surrounding Percy, but he was used to these kinds of things by now and charged on, ignoring all of his "slain" teammates. He wanted to find Nico and take his flag.

Sure, it would be sweet to go up to him and help protect the flag, but he wanted to win too. And there was no way Nico would go easy on him, which was the best part. So he kept running, with a smile on his face, until there was someone that stood directly in his way. He had been pretty stealthy, not making too much noise, not enough to be heard above everyone else's cries.

And the figure was, of course, Clarisse. Standing right in the way. She looked even bigger with her massive armor on. It didn't fit her at all, but she wore it so she looked even mightier. With the reactions she got from new campers, Percy could easily say she really didn't need the help. But there was no getting around her easily, so he sighed deeply and held up his prized sword.

Nico on the other hand was having a blast. And if you couldn't tell that was sarcastic as hell. Hazel had failed to mention that their team actually had a plan, and that he had a part in that plan. It would have been very helpful if they had actually told him about this before there was a relatively large group of people attacking him.

He was supposed to have summoned undead soldiers to help them, which he did not do. He thought it was against the rules, but his teammates apparently did not care. Well, Clarisse didn't, and that was the only opinion that mattered on the entire team. And they told him this when the signal was fired, and everyone was running away from him.

What they apparently didn't understand that was raising the dead was actually relatively hard and time consuming if you wanted it to be done correctly. Doing it incorrectly could result in unhappy dead people and being haunted for weeks on end. Quite annoying. So he didn't summon anyone.

Hazel was putting all her effort into the game, trying to forget about the real world. The war itself had little effect on her, but the aftereffects of it were what was hitting the hardest. It was common knowledge that relationships don't usual last through tough battles (literally in this case), but she had hoped that maybe theirs could. But, alas, it couldn't hold. Looking back, they had been partially forced together by a quest. Maybe it was better, maybe it wasn't. But with Frank paying absolutely no attention to her and tons to Leo, she didn't regret her decision one bit.

Nico looked over to his sister, who's eyes had almost glazed over she was so lost in thought. Then there was a rumbling in the bushes. The daughter of Pluto's head jerked back so fast she almost got whiplash, and she raised her sword instinctively. A stygian iron sword shone in the little light that passed through the trees.

After more tedious noises that were impossible to pinpoint, a figure rose out of the shrubbery. The boy was tall, with bright blue eyes shining through his helmet. He wielded a bronze sword, and held it out in front of him and wore a winning smirk. Nico had to stop himself from groaning. He had expected that no one would make it to them, but apparently Clarisse's plan had not worked all that well.

Both stepped forward, and the face off was laughable. Nico's opponent was a foot and a half taller than him, but the look the shorter boy gave made up for every inch. As the two continued to stare, Nico waiting for the other to make a move, there was unnoticed noise in the bushes. It was drowned out by the beating of feet against the dirt and the cries of campers.

Then, without any warning, they were completely surrounded. Blue team members that had been hiding jumped out, catching the sibling off guard. As Nico whipped his head around to get a good look at who he was facing. His eyes came across a young girl, possibly eleven, looking scared and unprepared. He quickly dismissed her and moved on, until he completely comprehended what he saw.

In her hand was an eighteen inch long, golden dagger that looked like it could possibly see into the future. The tall boy noticed that he had stopped to inspect the girl and lunged. Nico turned just as the sword dug into his right leg. The pain was horrid, but not the worst he had felt. Being able to compare a stab wound to a major artery to another injury and it being less painful said a lot about your life.

Hazel shouted out Nico's name as he crumpled to the ground. It was slow, it was a big thud, which looked painful by itself. Then add a sword sticking out of your leg. Ouch. By the time she got over to him to inspect it, the blue team had left with the flag.

"Oh gods oh gods oh gods," she chanted, holding Nico's head in her lap. He made a strangled noise, not really knowing what to say. 'What? Oh, this little scratch? I'll be fine, let me just walk it off.' That's what Percy would have done. Rolled into the water and miraculously healed himself. Now he was going to be the one that let the other team take the flag. Like he needed more reasons to be made fun of.

Percy was panting. Hard. It was rare that he got to fight someone like Clarisse, and he loved it. She was an amazing fighter, not that anyone would want to admit it, and put her heart into it. Of course, he could spar with her anytime he wanted, but the game added a layer of needed pressure.

It could have gone on for an hour if a group of Apollo campers didn't run straight through it, one holding the flag over his head and cheering prematurely. The look of disgust on Clarisse's face was priceless, but the way she said the next name was not.

"Nico! What did that boy do, I'm going to kill him!" She shouted, throwing her spear into the ground at her feet. Percy caught his breathe, picked himself off the ground from where he fell after the group nearly trampled him, and walked over to the girl.

"How about we don't do that," he smiled and held out a hand. She reluctantly took it and stood up, walking up and plucking the electrified spear out of the ground, and setting off towards the flag. Or where the flag had been held.

When they got to the base, there was a surprising emptiness. In the middle there was a camper sitting. And, another camper laying down? Percy couldn't see all that clearly. But he could hear one word, one choked out sob that made him bolt.

"N-Nico?"

Hazel took a deep breath as the older boy suddenly appeared, looming over the unconscious boy. Clarisse, who had set off right after Percy, frowned at the sight. Her eyes widened piteously.

"Looks pretty bad," she said "let's get him to Chiron, or a healer at least."

Percy nodded and scooped up Nico. He tried to be gentle, but the injured boy groaned in his sleep. Hazel choked back a sob, trying to be strong. This was putting her over the edge.

As they crossed the forest, there were yelps of cheer and cries of disgust. But as two of the saviors of Olympus crossed the field holding the son of Hades, everyone quieted. Even the youngest campers knew not to whisper or ask questions. Chiron galloped forward, immediately assessing the situation, and grabbing the boy from Percy's arms.

The centaur retreated back, with one of the most trusted healers at his hoofs. Percy was left to stare and hope. He barely noticed Hazel crumple to the ground next to him, and be comforted by Leo who mumbled nonsense into her huge hair. All that mattered was that Nico was okay.

* * *

**Oh noes! I hope Nico gets better. I realized all of my fics are all really sappy and happy so I decided to put some pain into this one. Mwuahaha. I'll stop now. Thanks for reading!**


	4. Case Closed?

When Nico was in the infirmary, Percy did not sleep. This was not uncommon for him, but it hadn't happened for a long time. Well, actually two weeks. But that felt like a long time ago now. He was living in the present for the first time, and the present presently sucked.

Nico was almost always asleep. Apparently he had really screwed himself up, but doesn't remember anything about what happened. The healer said that it was normal, the amount of blood he lost caused him to forget some things. Hazel hadn't been much help with determining why he had been caught off guard in the first place, but had told them who stabbed him. Said boy was almost murdered by Percy, but saved by Jason. He was lucky to only retain a few scratches and a couple of death threats. Only a couple.

Piper, whose troubles had almost been forgotten, was watching Percy bother Annabeth again. He wasn't allowed to see Nico after he managed to knock over every single bottle of rubbing alcohol in the Apollo cabin. And it was not only driving him crazy, but also Annabeth as she dealt with all of his misery. The wise woman was the one to turn to in times of tragedy and heart break, even she was partially the cause for the heart break. She wasn't his best friend for nothing.

The daughter of Athena's eyes wandered over to the beauty queen. They were wide and obviously tired. Dealing with Percy was not an easy job, she wondered how Nico could deal with it. Annabeth was the best suited for the job, knowing him for so long, but it still was tiring.

"Hey Percy, I think Jason is out training. Why don't you go and join him?" She suggested, smirking slightly at the blonde. What she didn't notice was the light blush covering the older girls cheeks. Percy however noticed this and smiled brightly. He may not be as oblivious as people thought, but he was still pretty oblivious. She blushed even brighter as he jogged away, winking with both eyes and a partial head nod. What a dork.

"So, what have you been doing lately?" Annabeth asked, scratching the back of her head.

Piper shrugged her shoulders. "Trying to find my stupid cursed dagger." Annabeth cocked her head to the side. The native American huffed and continued on with her story. "Nobody has seen it. I even pulled out the good old charmspeak and still nothing. Nobody has it. It's been what, a week since I lost it now? This is getting tiring."

Annabeth couldn't help but smile mid-rant. Which made Piper question her but not stop complaining. Finally when the blonde was on the verge of tears from containing laughter, did the brunette lash out.

"What is it? Do you think it's funny that I lost an ancient artifact? They're probably going to kill me or put me on a log and have a beaver eat my spleen every day or something!" She shouted, catching the attention of some younger campers. The older campers knew by now that the seven were very unique, and to ignore them because it was just a waste of time to try and figure out what was going on.

After taking a minute to catch her breath and control her breathing, Annabeth proudly smirked and reached into her sheath. The sheath that usually held her blade was housing a guest. Picking her jaw up off the ground, Piper grabbed her blade from her friend, cutting herself on the sharp edge, but she didn't notice.

Mouth closed but eyes demanding an answer to an unasked question, Piper stared right through Annabeth's soul.

"So, I found your blade lying on the floor outside of your cabin last week. I put it out by the basketball court so someone would find it, and to teach you a lesson. Don't leave your stuff lying around. I thought Chiron would tell me if they found your blade, so I went back to work. But he never said anything, and I forgot all about hiding it. When Percy came to ask me about it, I had no genuine idea where it could be," she said. Piper frowned at her.

"Why would you do that? I could have gotten in a lot of trouble," Piper muttered under her breathe.

"Like you care if you get in trouble," Annabeth said. Piper shrugged and the other girl continued. "Even if you did lose it, they wouldn't do anything. You might lose desert privileges for a week, but you won't be killed or anything. Do you know how many ancient artifacts Percy has broken, and he's still here. But back to the story. I had completely abandoned the idea of finding it by capture the flag. But right after, when everyone was finally calming down from Nico's injury, a little girl comes up to me. She's holding Katoptris, and claiming she saw faces in it. The girl was trembling, so I took it from her and sent her to bed. And since then I've kept it."

She smiled victoriously. Piper sighed and backed up against the wall of the Big House, slowly sliding down it. She had never been happier to see the stupid blade. Clutching it to her chest, she watched Annabeth retreat towards her library like cabin.

Glancing down at the blade, she took a deep breath. This blade had belonged to Helen of Troy. Who started a war based off of vanity and love. She wondered what it was like to be in love. What she had with Jason was forced, she had been living in a bitter sweet dream. A dream she was glad to wake up from.

This blade worked wonders, right? It had showed her some pretty horrible things, maybe it owed her one good one. She took it in both hands and closed her eyes, focusing her heart and soul on the dagger and her question. Or questions. Who will I love? Will I ever fall in love? Do I know him? Is it a demigod? When do I meet him?

Opening her eyes was one of the hardest things she had done in a long time. She wanted to know but at the same time she didn't. It felt like cheating. But if you can't win, cheat. That sounded like a Hermes saying.

Stormy grey eyes flashed across. Blonde hair blew across the petite yet strong face. Just as she began to understand what she saw, the vision vanished.

Okay, so maybe not a he.

Nico was tired of sleeping.

Impossible, right?

Everyone was surrounding him all the time, asking stupid questions. Yes, I feel fine. No, I don't remember what happened. No Jason, you shouldn't murder whoever tried to kill me. And don't let Percy either.

He was only a little glad when Percy got kicked out. More time to himself basically meant another season of Doctor Who on Netflix. The gods had enough sense to let the demigods have wifi. That would have been way too much culture shock for some campers.

Hazel had been in much worse condition than he had. She would start crying randomly, and Nico was not very good at handling tears. Leo would come and try and help and it usually worked. But sometimes it made it worse. It wasn't just her that had problems; they all had some form of PTSD to deal with. Nico would sometimes shut people out randomly, but not just ignoring. He could not physically hear them. He noticed that Annabeth and Percy did it too. Maybe it was from Tartarus.

Frank and Jason seemed to get violent. Piper would mess with people all the time for no reason besides to enjoy herself. Leo was in a depressed coma for hours on end. Hopefully over time the symptoms would lessen and they could go back to being semi-normal. As normal as demigods could be. It didn't help being from a different time period either.

A creaking sound came from the window. Nico's head turned so fast it hurt his neck. Yup, too much Netflix. He grabbed his sword from his nightstand (the only bonus of having a half blood healer, weapons at the ready all the time) and swung his legs over the bed. Percy had given him some of his clothes that reeked of sea salt and fish. But it was Percy's smell, so it was good. Beside the excessive use of the color blue all throughout the outfit.

Then the window swung open. That would have been perfectly normal had the window been a window that opened like a door, but this window did not. Or rather, it wasn't supposed to. On the other side of it was none other than Percy Jackson, checking out the damage he caused, and obviously swearing under his breath.

Nico had to stop himself from shouting. That would let the other campers know that he had a visitor, which was prohibited. Well, visitors were fine. Percy wasn't allowed. He stepped through the window like the door it appeared to be. A wide smile crossed his face as he caught sight of Nico in his clothes. They were too big on him, but it made it even cuter.

He took two long strides and engulfed his boyfriend in a hug. He had decided to call him that from now on. It sounded good. Nico groaned in pain, and Percy dropped him like a hot potato, which made him hurt more. Even with the magic, Nico was in bad shape before the game. He constantly used too much energy and didn't eat enough. Needless to say he was not allowed to skip any meals or do any kind of physical activity for a long time.

He didn't mind for once. Being lazy was fine, as long as he got to talk to people. Contrary to popular belief, he did not hate everyone. There were plenty of people at camp that he talked to regularly. Mostly children of minor gods that didn't hate him as much. Or at least judge him because of his father.

Percy smiled apologetically, and sat down on the bed across from Nico's. With a grunt, the dark eyed boy sat across from him. They just sat there in each other's presence.

Looking back to when he hated Percy Jackson, he couldn't understand the source of that anger. Bianca was gone, yes, and he had been there. He had promised to protect her, but she was supposed to try and protect herself too. It was her fault really, but he couldn't accept that. And Percy Jackson had been the closest one, so he blamed him. He hated with his entire heart.

When that emotion turned into love was still a mystery to him. He just remembered looking into those sea green eyes and not seeing Bianca for once, but seeing himself reflecting out of them. Seeing himself happy.

Suddenly, he dived on the other boy, knocking him onto his back with Nico straddling his waist. Percy looked so shocked that Nico laughed.

"Doesn't that hurt?" Percy asked, being the overprotective boyfriend that he always was. Nico shook his head and leaned down, only an inch between the two.

"I've felt worse." He closed the gap.

* * *

**That's the end! Hope you liked it, I think it got worse as it went on, but I wrote it so I don't really know. Hope you enjoyed it at least. Reviews are greatly appreciated. Thanks for reading!**


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